Backpacking with a hammock is heaven! I discovered this through a good friend and couldn't resist the temptation to purchase one. After laying in my friends hammock, later the same week I rushed to REI and hooked myself up with a Eno singlenest hammock. Yes they do make a doublenest. Since that day sleeping anywhere in the mountains has been splendid and completely comfortable until my last trip.
Royal lake in the Olympic national park is a majestic alpine basin surrounded my seven 7,000 foot mountains. The trip was three days and two nights. The first night was sweet, pure sleep!! Second Night, not as much. The night started off well, like normal. Tarp tied up over my hammock with my body coming to rest a foot and half away from the ground. Wind gusts started blowing and are normal at 5,000 feet up. I didn't tie my tarp down securely to the surrounding spruce trees and half of the trap blew off. After pissing i fixed the wind damage and jumped back in the hammock hoping for more sleep.
Twenty minutes later a strange rustling sound came from my left. Nerves started pounding, thinking it was a bear. It continued with what sounded like a hoofed animal digging and munching on a late night snack. No grunts or wicked bear smell. Most likely it was a Mountain goat but I couldn't see from under my tarp.
Back to sleep with more high winds. My tarp blew off again but this time it was the half covering my head. Being half asleep and not wanting to get my lazy hinnie out i simply laid my head on the opposite side of my hammock. Easy enough, back to sleep...oh sleep i love sleep.
Sunlight beamed down from the peaks of the mountain vistas and it's already 8 o'clock. Breakfast and building a fire are now on their way. As the fire starts to warm my legs i realize that i feel well rested. Surprising, realizing i just slept with my legs higher that my head.
Half hour goes by as we are packing up and suddenly i feel bloated. My stomach starts to ache and ache. Oh crap, half a stick of salami last night with a night of sleeping like a bat is now reeking havoc on my stomach.
The trip has to go on, we want to hike out off trail over Mount Fricaba's north extending ridge to connect back to the marmot pass trail to conclude our loop hike. I trudge on stopping every 5 minutes to take off my backpack, lay down and pass some serious gas again, again and again. After about and hour and half the cramping stops and exploring now becomes exciting again.
I never thought i would be sharing this for my first blog post. I guarantee their will never be another blog post or hiking adventure with the words salami, hammock and gas together. Hammocks are great and comfortable but don't forget to KEEP YOUR HEAD UP!!!
